You're gonna have to be more specific than "outside of the classroom", there's basically everything here. I don't really know how to explain anything because it is all I know so I don't know how it is different from anything else, but if you have specific questions I can answer them.

On December 12 2010 14:21 Crunchums wrote:You're gonna have to be more specific than "outside of the classroom", there's basically everything here. I don't really know how to explain anything because it is all I know so I don't know how it is different from anything else, but if you have specific questions I can answer them.

Do you guys do any random student-organized projects. Something similar to school pranks, random creations or competitions, etc. I'm sorry I can't be more specific. I don't really know exactly what I'm looking for, hehe.

On December 12 2010 14:21 Crunchums wrote:You're gonna have to be more specific than "outside of the classroom", there's basically everything here. I don't really know how to explain anything because it is all I know so I don't know how it is different from anything else, but if you have specific questions I can answer them.

Do you guys do any random student-organized projects. Something similar to school pranks, random creations or competitions, etc. I'm sorry I can't be more specific. I don't really know exactly what I'm looking for, hehe.

Buggy is a random competition, booth is a random creation/competition... I guess there's also the fence?

The main student organized projects are during Carnival. They are not random really. Basically each student organization builds a booth and some participate in this Buggy race thing, both of which are competitive. I've heard from friends that both require alot of work, and are variable in quantity of fun depending on how much you personally enjoy that kind of stuff.

The main "prank" is the fence. Basically its a fence in the middle of campus, different organizations "take" the fence, hold it overnight, and paint something on it. Generally an ad for some event they are hosting. I held the fence one night freshman year. The rule is you have to have 2 people within some distance of the fence at all times or else someone can take it. So I slept on a mattress outside. It was fricking cold, I had dew on my nose when I woke up the next morning.

Over winter break, if you stay on campus, there is an engineering event. I'm not sure if people still run it. Basically you get equipment, and can work on anything you want. Your projects are judged at the end on how awesome they are. I've heard that's alot of fun.

There will definitely be "random" projects too if you keep your eyes open for oppurtunities. But I large majority of projects and activities are organized. I see you are from Taiwan. There is a Taiwanese Student Association that I participated in as a freshman. It was mainly a social thing, meet new people, find people to hang out with, etc..

I also studied engineering. There are definitely a whole lot of interesting projects you can participate in. The best/most organized/well funded projects are with professors. Just figure out what projects they have going, talk to them, see if you can join. I worked with a professor on a mobile grocery store app for a local grocery chain. Learned alot about developing webapps, mobile apps, learned Ruby, Rails, basically a bunch of stuff, and got paid for it. It also helped me get the supersweet job I have right now.

Basicaly CMU is a great place for getting you employed at a top company anywhere in the world (only can say that for sure about engineering, dunno about other areas). I'd say that's the main advantage. And there are organizations for basically every kind of college activity you can think of. Also, the professors do some of the most cutting edge and interesting work, and you can work for them as an undergrad.

Downsides, low on "randomness," very expensive, alot of schoolwork, not an easy degree in engineering.

wait, are you coming to carnegie mellon university as a freshman? what major are you considering? Engineering or CS?

If you are engineering or CS, prepare to do a hell lot of work, suffer bias as a CS person (its ridiculous how people assume you can't interact socially if you are CS or engineering). People think you are smart on the flip side.

Big events that happen: Booth, where people build a structure up to 2 storey.Greek Sing: where fraternities and sororities come together to hold some performanceDance Symposium: All the dancers come out and have an epic performanceRandom other student activities, house parties, frat parties which is awesome.

If you are hardcore into Starcraft, there is always CMUSC team which plays TSL, or other random groups which play, like the asian student association I am in.

Of course if you are non CS or Engineering then you are auto-assume you are are not socially inept. but you are dumb.

I'm a third year CS student, and I already hate it. It was great at first, but as time went by, I found myself increasing dissatisfied. Here's why:

1. Academics - Lots of theory, very focused on research. Fine if you're into that stuff, but very hard and time-consuming. I'd say the biggest example is the effort:result ratio. In most majors, if you put in X amount of hours, you'll expect Y amount of return (like actually finishing an assignment). In CS (maybe ECE too, not sure), you can put in like 100 hours and still not understand the material => you fail. This mostly isn't the case for intro classes, but once you start taking higher level classes, you'll understand.2. Social life - You can join as many clubs as you want; your social life will still blow in comparison to places like Duke, Stanford, state schools, Harvard, hell my friends at MIT are much happier.3. Campus - Ugly, small, boring, parking is absolutely terrible, no dining halls.4. No $$$ - CMU is hella poor, since our alumni giving rate is abysmally low. This directly translates into worse facilities and fewer opportunities.5. Girls - There are definitely some attractive girls here, but overall, the stereotypes about CMU are true. Rating: D-

Some cool things that aren't actually that cool:1. Booth/buggy - Having participated in both of these events as a fraternity member, I can say that they're basically a huge black hole of money and time. Although they're very unique to CMU, people waste thousands of dollars and countless man-hours every year to make it happen.

If you DO come to CMU though, major in IS (Information Systems). It's super easy compared to CS or engineering, you learn real-life skills, and you still get great jobs after graduating. Basically, only do CS if you really want to go get a Master's or PhD after and continue to do research/academia for your entire life.

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill

Well what do you want to do with your degree? You might think it's too early to realize what you want to do after graduation, but you should have a definite career path in mind. Also be sure to keep backup options in case you decide to change your mind or realize something's not going to work out.

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill

On December 19 2010 07:35 teh leet newb wrote:DON'T COME TO CMU! At least not for CS.

I'm a third year CS student, and I already hate it. It was great at first, but as time went by, I found myself increasing dissatisfied. Here's why:

1. Academics - Lots of theory, very focused on research. Fine if you're into that stuff, but very hard and time-consuming. I'd say the biggest example is the effort:result ratio. In most majors, if you put in X amount of hours, you'll expect Y amount of return (like actually finishing an assignment). In CS (maybe ECE too, not sure), you can put in like 100 hours and still not understand the material => you fail. This mostly isn't the case for intro classes, but once you start taking higher level classes, you'll understand.2. Social life - You can join as many clubs as you want; your social life will still blow in comparison to places like Duke, Stanford, state schools, Harvard, hell my friends at MIT are much happier.3. Campus - Ugly, small, boring, parking is absolutely terrible, no dining halls.4. No $$$ - CMU is hella poor, since our alumni giving rate is abysmally low. This directly translates into worse facilities and fewer opportunities.5. Girls - There are definitely some attractive girls here, but overall, the stereotypes about CMU are true. Rating: D-

Some cool things that aren't actually that cool:1. Booth/buggy - Having participated in both of these events as a fraternity member, I can say that they're basically a huge black hole of money and time. Although they're very unique to CMU, people waste thousands of dollars and countless man-hours every year to make it happen.

If you DO come to CMU though, major in IS (Information Systems). It's super easy compared to CS or engineering, you learn real-life skills, and you still get great jobs after graduating. Basically, only do CS if you really want to go get a Master's or PhD after and continue to do research/academia for your entire life.

On December 19 2010 07:35 teh leet newb wrote:DON'T COME TO CMU! At least not for CS.

I'm a third year CS student, and I already hate it. It was great at first, but as time went by, I found myself increasing dissatisfied. Here's why:

1. Academics - Lots of theory, very focused on research. Fine if you're into that stuff, but very hard and time-consuming. I'd say the biggest example is the effort:result ratio. In most majors, if you put in X amount of hours, you'll expect Y amount of return (like actually finishing an assignment). In CS (maybe ECE too, not sure), you can put in like 100 hours and still not understand the material => you fail. This mostly isn't the case for intro classes, but once you start taking higher level classes, you'll understand.2. Social life - You can join as many clubs as you want; your social life will still blow in comparison to places like Duke, Stanford, state schools, Harvard, hell my friends at MIT are much happier.3. Campus - Ugly, small, boring, parking is absolutely terrible, no dining halls.4. No $$$ - CMU is hella poor, since our alumni giving rate is abysmally low. This directly translates into worse facilities and fewer opportunities.5. Girls - There are definitely some attractive girls here, but overall, the stereotypes about CMU are true. Rating: D-

Some cool things that aren't actually that cool:1. Booth/buggy - Having participated in both of these events as a fraternity member, I can say that they're basically a huge black hole of money and time. Although they're very unique to CMU, people waste thousands of dollars and countless man-hours every year to make it happen.

If you DO come to CMU though, major in IS (Information Systems). It's super easy compared to CS or engineering, you learn real-life skills, and you still get great jobs after graduating. Basically, only do CS if you really want to go get a Master's or PhD after and continue to do research/academia for your entire life.

You just ruined a lot of dreams here.

hahahahaha, Will, you're so mean, XD.

Anyways, I'm a junior majoring in ECE.

I don't think ECE is as much focused on theory, at least I don't see it that way. Unfortunately, if you wanna be more focused on the Analog part(aka, electrical engineering), you're probably not gonna be very satisfied with the ECE department. The two deeper courses I've taken in it have been horrendously unsatisfactory. However, I think the digital parts have been quite nice.

It kinda depends on what you find cool in ECE too. As for the workload, I think it kinda depends on what you're used to. It's a lot compared to high school(since I slacked off a bunch), but I don't think it's horrific. Since ECE isn't as closely tied to math as CS is, I feel like most of the concepts are fairly straightforward to understand. However, keep in mind the the problem sets tend to be long(5-10+ hours/week/course not atypical, although not really bad compared to CS kids, this is also bad if you procrastinate like me.... >____>;. One nice thing about ECE is that if you have some interest in CS, you can just pick and choose random courses in CS.

I mean, it's kinda hard to say exactly how it'll be for you, because again, it kinda depends on what you're used to as a workload/how hard you work/how smart you are.

As for the other things he wrote, I don't really have much of a comment, aside that campus is typically a preference. I don't really mind the small campus size, I think it's quite nice, and it's a lot better than having something really huge.

On December 19 2010 07:35 teh leet newb wrote:DON'T COME TO CMU! At least not for CS.

I'm a third year CS student, and I already hate it. It was great at first, but as time went by, I found myself increasing dissatisfied. Here's why:

1. Academics - Lots of theory, very focused on research. Fine if you're into that stuff, but very hard and time-consuming. I'd say the biggest example is the effort:result ratio. In most majors, if you put in X amount of hours, you'll expect Y amount of return (like actually finishing an assignment). In CS (maybe ECE too, not sure), you can put in like 100 hours and still not understand the material => you fail. This mostly isn't the case for intro classes, but once you start taking higher level classes, you'll understand.2. Social life - You can join as many clubs as you want; your social life will still blow in comparison to places like Duke, Stanford, state schools, Harvard, hell my friends at MIT are much happier.3. Campus - Ugly, small, boring, parking is absolutely terrible, no dining halls.4. No $$$ - CMU is hella poor, since our alumni giving rate is abysmally low. This directly translates into worse facilities and fewer opportunities.5. Girls - There are definitely some attractive girls here, but overall, the stereotypes about CMU are true. Rating: D-

Some cool things that aren't actually that cool:1. Booth/buggy - Having participated in both of these events as a fraternity member, I can say that they're basically a huge black hole of money and time. Although they're very unique to CMU, people waste thousands of dollars and countless man-hours every year to make it happen.

If you DO come to CMU though, major in IS (Information Systems). It's super easy compared to CS or engineering, you learn real-life skills, and you still get great jobs after graduating. Basically, only do CS if you really want to go get a Master's or PhD after and continue to do research/academia for your entire life.

Girls are CMU are either C, M, or U: Chinese, married or uglyI remember hearing that when I was considering CMU for undergrad, and that stereotype turned out to be semi true when I visited lol

On December 20 2010 12:47 Empyrean wrote:Wait, did you honestly just say ECE isn't as tied to math as CS is? It's different math, to be sure, but there's still a ton of math in ECE.

And yeah, that long post sums up CMU pretty well, from what I've heard from other people.

What, not really. To graduate in ECE at CMU you literally need to take the basic calc courses that all engineers need to take, and then like one basic proof related course, and then one really poorly taught math course that deals with diff eq/matrix algebra/simple complex stuff.

There really isn't a terrible amount of math in ECE, and if it is it's mostly for the analog part and signals. For digital, it's not math at all, aside from like boolean algebra stuff, which is ez. Trust me, CS has a lot more to deal with math, and it's not even funny how closely they are tied together. You still need to think logically to do well in ECE, but CS definitely has more proof based math and algorithmic related things.

-edit-I guess reading your post again, I guess what I consider to be math is hard math, not really easy math. ECE does revolve around math, but it's not really what I consider hard at all.

On December 20 2010 12:47 Empyrean wrote:Wait, did you honestly just say ECE isn't as tied to math as CS is? It's different math, to be sure, but there's still a ton of math in ECE.

And yeah, that long post sums up CMU pretty well, from what I've heard from other people.

What, not really. To graduate in ECE at CMU you literally need to take the basic calc courses that all engineers need to take, and then like one basic proof related course, and then one really poorly taught math course that deals with diff eq/matrix algebra/simple complex stuff.

There really isn't a terrible amount of math in ECE, and if it is it's mostly for the analog part and signals. For digital, it's not math at all, aside from like boolean algebra stuff, which is ez. Trust me, CS has a lot more to deal with math, and it's not even funny how closely they are tied together. You still need to think logically to do well in ECE, but CS definitely has more proof based math and algorithmic related things.

Do you guys not even hit integral transforms and more advanced algebra/calculus topics? :O